Reader blasts Curran, stands up for Anderson



I’m writing in response to the Opinions column published in The Evening News and appearing online at www.newsandtribune.com written by Kelley Curran about Haven House.

She writes, “Discussion about how to address homelessness should not be dominated by the personalities involved in providing services.”

Well, who do you think should be having that discussion?

I worked at Haven House Services Inc. for more than seven years. When times got rough and pay was slow in coming, no one held a gun to my head to make me go to work. I went because that was my job, and I believed in the work.

I know how we treated the homeless and how we served the homeless. We served everyone in need. If someone is turned away from the shelter, more than likely, the shelter is full. More times than not, even when space is limited, people are taken in.

Most agencies which claim to serve the homeless refuse to serve the more chronic homeless people or cherry pick their clients. We have nonprofits in Jeffersonville and New Albany which have supportive housing programs for the homeless, yet they never contact the local homeless shelter for referrals in their programs. Where are they getting their homeless population?

When times got financially difficult for Haven House, Barbara Anderson called a staff meeting. At these staff meetings, she was up front with all staff members about the money situation. She advised all the staff to look for other work. She also went so far as to offer her help to any of her staff in finding a new job. She gave us the opportunity to leave at anytime, and claimed she could not blame anyone if they did leave.

After that meeting, we lost one employee. Services were not cut and we continued to serve our homeless population. How many companies can say their employees would return to work Monday if they didn’t get paid Friday?

In reviewing the financial picture, Barb had to decide whether to pay the light bill, to buy food, to pay the gas bill or to pay employees. When you are sleeping 60 to 80 people a night, you have to make hard choices. Keeping the doors open to the shelter is the most important thing to Haven House employees. Working for Haven House is much more than a job — it’s a calling.

There are people in Jeffersonville who say Barbara should step down. These same people propose that if she stepped down, more people would help. I personally find that hard to believe.

No one wants the job of taking care of the homeless. No one wants to go out in below zero weather and check under the bridge for the homeless people. People think if Haven House goes away, so will the homeless population. That’s not true; you will have more homeless people sleeping in tents or under the bridge.

A lot of people have opinions of how to better serve the homeless and better ways to manage the shelter. The problem is that none of these people are stepping up to the plate to help. I bet if this were the animal shelter — which gets money from the city — people would be knocking down the doors to help.

Instead of handing out a cigarette and light, maybe you should hand out food or offer a job to the homeless. Maybe, yet, you could go back to the Waffle House, instead of bad mouthing a good woman you couldn’t hold a candle to.

— Pixie Burkhead, Floyds Knobs



NAHS staffers wish good luck to Class of 2009



Congratulations to the New Albany High School Senior Class of 2009. As a class, you have excelled in academics, the arts, and athletics. In every area, you have raised the bar to new standards that will be very hard for upcoming classes to match.

You will be missed. Congratulations and good luck!

— Steve and Linda Bonifer, New Albany



Indiana AARP pleased by nurse education legislation



Classical economics suggests that supply and demand eventually reaches equilibrium. Unfortunately, a recent report by the Indiana University Center for Health Policy shows that Indiana’s demand for nurses has outstripped supply and will continue to do so at an increasing rate at least through 2020.

The evidence includes 6,000 unfilled nursing positions in Indiana hospitals alone in the first quarter of 2007.

This imbalance means that too many Hoosiers in both rural and urban settings lack access to the primary and preventive care they need to live healthy, productive lives.

A key factor driving the imbalance is a dearth of qualified nursing faculty. The shortage is so acute that Indiana’s 44 nursing schools and programs reject 2,500 qualified Hoosier applicants each year.

As long as this continues, the goal of quality, affordable health care for all will remain elusive.

AARP Indiana is pleased, therefore, that U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh has introduced legislation with bipartisan backing to address the nursing shortage.

The Nurses Higher Education and Loan Repayment Act of 2009 provides financial incentives for nurses and nursing students to obtain the necessary education — at least a master’s degree — to enter teaching. In return, the legislation requires them to teach four years at an accredited nursing school.

An adequate supply of nurses and nursing faculty is a small, but critical, piece of health care reform. Congress should follow Bayh’s lead and adopt innovative strategies to build a strong base of primary care providers that Hoosiers and all Americans need.

— Clyde Hall, state president, AARP Indiana, McCordsville



Reader defends Anderson, says Curran is ‘vindictive’



I am a friend of Barbara Anderson, as well as a professional colleague. I have sat back and watched as your paper has played with Barbara over the years, but now I need to say something.

Jim Grahn’s column on Haven House was well-meaning, but somewhat naive. Kelley Curran’s was vindictive.

Both of you live in an unreal world where you must believe there are “homeless fairies” just willing to come along and give lots of money to help street people, if only Barbara would step aside. This is a myth and a falsehood.

For the past three years, Barb has struggled under intense personal stress trying to fulfill her life’s mission under the constant scrutiny of the IRS. If anyone else had wanted to step up and start a shelter and capture all those mythical dollars that must be there, in your opinion, they could have done so at any time.

Barbara was not getting the money, so why did not all those other “professional and competent agencies” who follow all the rules go after those funds and serve the homeless in pristine surroundings and with well-balanced meals as Ms. Curran suggests.

There is no money!

Scott County has homeless people, and we send them to Haven House because there is no money to pay for shelter and we know Barb and her staff won’t turn them away. Women, children, mentally ill, young and old receive a welcome and support services at Haven House day and night, 24 hours a day, 365 days per year.

I believe that Barb should close the place down for her own good and her own health, but I also know, as she does, that the people she serves will then not have a refuge. There will not be a Haven House or any other shelter for them this side of the river.

She does have community support from “the little people.” That is how she is surviving. She does not have support from people of means who could have stepped in three years ago and quietly assisted her and helped her to transform her agency when things began to fall apart.

When the school board needed to hire an overpaid new superintendent, money was suddenly promised from the community. The salary package offered could house 60 people 365 days per year at Haven House.

I appreciate your challenge to the community not to let this issue die, but as Barb’s friend, I hope that your paper will find someone else to pick on for a while. Barbara is the most authentic, and yes, most Christ-like person I know. She puts us all to shame in how she lives and how she serves “the least of these.”

Yes, her agency is broken, but it is because all the rest of us, including me, have sat back and let her bear the burden herself.

— Carolyn Allaby King, executive director, Scott County Partnership Inc., Scottsburg



Readers shower Riverside staff with praise



In a day when good news is rare and criticism comes easy, we’d like to publicly offer overwhelming gratitude to the incredible faculty and staff at Riverside Elementary School.

Five years ago, we walked our oldest daughter into an old, musty building, staffed by caring, energetic and dedicated everyday people. A year later, we walked our second daughter into the same building.

It wasn’t much to look at, inside or out, but you could sense that the people who staffed the building were passionate about students and their success in school and life.

Today, Riverside Elementary boasts one of the best-equipped facilities among all of the Greater Clark County Schools. It’s state-of-the-art. And for this, we are grateful. But buildings don’t educate children, people do. The one constant throughout both our daughters’ elementary education has been the people.

In a time when it would seem that everyone is wondering how to help children succeed and pouring money into questionable answers, we are here to applaud the dedicated individuals who work tirelessly day in and day out at Riverside. Our daughters, teachers and the staff that assist them are the partners with which we have worked hand-in-hand to see both our girls succeed.

Next week, we will watch our oldest daughter stride toward middle school and away from Riverside Elementary, a place that has become a home of sorts for her and our family. It’s bittersweet.

To every Riverside employee who contributed to this accomplishment, thank you! You made a difference in our lives and will continue to.

Your efforts are more than a percentage on a report. Your efforts are expressed through the young lives with names and potentials that you serve every day. We see your dedication to these lives.

Whether the board, administration or Department of Education recognizes it, we are eyewitnesses to two lives that are better off for having been a part of the Riverside family.

Keep up the great work Riverside!

— Dr. Troy and Karla Temple, Jeffersonville